West Chester shouldn't move Growers Market

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Here is our suggestion to the West Chester Borough Council in its deliberations over whether to sell or otherwise dispose of the parking lot at the corner of West Chestnut and North church streets, a move that would endanger the existence of the immensely popular West Chester Growers’ Market: Don’t do it.

We make that suggestion as heartily as any we have every written about in the past decades. The idea that the borough would trade a priceless gem such as the Saturday morning marker for monetary gain is simply unfathomable. There are things that make West Chester a uniquely livable community, and the growers’ market is one of them.

We agree with residents who are sounding the alarm that without the parking lot and its central, walkable location, the market might either find itself out of business, or moved to another community, one that would surely welcome its presence. We hope that they will keep the rpessure on members of the council to dispose of this idea forthwith.

After sending out a request for proposals of how much money they could get for the land – which once was the location of the Chestnut Street Meetinghouse-- ,the borough received five offers for the property, ranging from $450,000 to $982,000, and one offer of a property trade. The offers range from keeping the property a public parking lot to developing it for residential and office uses. Councilman John Manion, Finance Committee chairman, said the property was looked at as a potential money maker to offset some expenses. The committee made no move on the proposals at the meeting, but unanimously recommended to seek an independent appraisal of the lot.

Although here were some expressions from the committee of support for the growers’ market, the logistics of a sale of the Chestnut Street lot would likely spell a relocation. Council President Holly Brown, however, said the market organizers have no interest in being relocated indoors or under a garage since it prides itself as an open air venue. “We love the growers market and we are trying to do anything we can to make sure it stays in town,” Brown said.

A petition to keep the market alive at its current location was recently started on the website Change.org. As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition had garnered 162 signatures. We would hope that it soon has dozens more.